Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1963)

THE ^^i^. SUN WMAR Show Exhilarates 'jMII host Jilt: II mo n t .1 r \ study of narcotics addiction I have ever seen was presented on WMAR-TV last Wednesday. It also set a ncv. high in every phase of production for the station, vshich has made some )loo^\ ones in the past year. The first ot a three-part study of the subject, it deal' with the pro! lem from the point-of-view of one victim. The second will he on the relationship between the addicts and the lau aiul wh.it is bemj; done by the authorities. The final one will discuss efforts to find a cure, and more satisfactory ways of providing help for those who need it. The stafl responsible for it scored an achievement which is extremely rare in television; indeed, I can think of only a very few factual programs in which it was noted. That is, they found a way to build the opening film around a real-life person, willing to brave the stigma which is the heroin users lot. She talked freely about herself and a period of misery which began sixteen years ago, when she was 12 years old. Trenieiidoit.s Impart This gave the story a human By DONALD KIRKI.KY qu.ilit\ .uut .in imp.ict which go be\ont.l the power of words to ilescribe. Hut this was onK one of m.iny assets. Technic.illy. it was brilliant, an .idjective which m.iy be used onl\ once in a while in reference to loc.illv proil need documentaries Everything meshed — the production by Boh Cochrane, the script by Cieorge Cupe. the photogr.iph> by Charles F'urcell, the direction by Janet C ovington, the narration b\ Don Bruchey. I'nrt Of I'dttcrn 1 hcN were fortunate as well .IS enterprising in their discovery of a young woman who was able to tell her ow n story, l.irgeK in her own words, in .in .irticulate but simple, sincere manner. She didn't learn to talk this way in school; she was a high school drop-out. She was taught mostly during periods of confinement in the Maryland Institute For Women. She has three children, not shown, of course, in the film. She displayed, without coaching or rehearsing, a surprisingly thorough comprehension of the nature of the drug habit and its consequences. Her story was set ofT by concise statements of facts about the problem as it afTects Baltimore, and the whole pattern, of which she is an individual part. Also, there was a most rem.irk.ible kind of counterpoint in Mr. I'lircell's photograph\, which deserves special mention His camera, with liberal use of close-ups of inanimate objects as well as faces, told a complementary story about the v.irious environments in which the soung woman has lived — home, jail, the streets and alleys, stores. One of the most remarkable things about the film is that the sound track alone would be absorbing on radio, and the pictorial background, would be fascinating, if shown by itself with a few subtitles. Both would profit from a fine musical score by Glenn Bunch, which stressed the changing moods w ithout being obtrusive. If Parts II and III. to follow on d.ites not yet announced, maintain this standard. Drug Addiction will be in strong contention for whatever prizes are offered in the documcntarv field this season. // The Octopus . . . and the Addict Another in a ser/es of documentary programs produced in the public interest by the WMAR TV editorial projects team. ff In Maryland Most People Watch V\flVIAR-TVc©: TELEVISION PARK, BALTIMORE 12, MD. Represented Nationally by THE KATZ AGENCY. INC SPONSOR |\ PI HI K Ml MRS 71